Automatic translation of advertisements

ABSTRACT

In an embodiment of a messaging system, a method for presenting a commercial message to a user is provided. A target language in which the user is comfortable communicating may be determined based on at least one communication received by the user or at least one communication provided by the user. The commercial message may be presented to the user in the target language.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to automatic language translation ofadvertisements or commercial messages from a source language to a targetlanguage, and in particular to methods, systems, and machine-readablemedia for use in a messaging system for determining a target language inwhich a user is comfortable communicating and presenting a commercialmessage in the target language to the user.

2. Introduction

Advertisements are a huge revenue source for data network searchcompanies and Internet service providers. Most data network searchcompanies and Internet service providers are not sensitive to a user'snative language and therefore, make no attempt to present advertisementsor commercial messages to the user in a language in which the user ismost comfortable.

Google of Mountain View, Calif., provides an email service whichanalyzes email in a user's inbox to determine which advertisements totarget to the user. However, no attempt is made to translate theadvertisements to a language that is most comfortable for the user

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth inthe description which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Thefeatures and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained bymeans of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out inthe appended claims. These and other features of the present inventionwill become more fully apparent from the following description andappended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention asset forth herein.

In a first aspect of the invention, a method for presenting a commercialmessage to a user is provided. A target language in which the user iscomfortable communicating may be determined based on at least onecommunication received by the user or at least one communicationprovided by the user. The commercial message may be presented to theuser in the target language.

In a second aspect of the invention, a machine-readable medium havingstored thereon instructions for at least one processor may be provided.The machine-readable medium may include instructions for determining atarget language in which the user is comfortable communicating based onat least one communication received by the user or at least onecommunication provided by the user via a communication system, andinstructions for presenting a commercial message in the target languageto the user.

In a third aspect of the invention, a communication system may beprovided. The communication system may include a language selector todetermine a target language in which the user is comfortablecommunicating based on at least one communication received by the useror at least one communication provided by the user, and a messagepresenter to present a commercial message in the target language to theuser.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and otheradvantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a moreparticular description of the invention briefly described above will berendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which areillustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawingsdepict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not thereforeto be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will bedescribed and explained with additional specificity and detail throughthe use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary operating environment for a firstembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of an exemplary processing systemwhich may be used in implementations consistent with principles of theinvention;

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of an exemplary server consistentwith the principles of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an exemplary process that may be performed inimplementations consistent with the principles of the invention;

FIGS. 5 and 6 are flowcharts which provide more detail of certainaspects of the exemplary process illustrated by the flowchart of FIG. 4;and

FIGS. 7A and 7B are flowcharts of an exemplary process that may beperformed when a user uses an embodiment of the invention to accessmessages.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Various embodiments of the invention are discussed in detail below.While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understoodthat this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled inthe relevant art will recognize that other components and configurationsmay be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Exemplary Operating Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary operating environment 100 consistentwith the principles of the invention. Operating environment 100 mayinclude a number of processing devices 102, a telephone 104, a server106 and a network 108. Although only two processing devices 102 areshown in FIG. 1, an operating environment 100 may include many moreprocessing devices 112. Further, operating environment 100 may include 1number of servers 106, instead of only one server 106, as shown inoperating environment 100.

Each of processing devices 102 may be a device a user employs to accessa communication system via a network and send and receive one or morecommunications to and from other users or a server, such as server 106.Telephone 104 may be, for example, a conventional telephone connected toa Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), or a wireless telephone,such as, for example, a cellular telephone or Personal Digital Assistant(PDA) with cellular telephonic capability connected to a mobiletelephone network. Server 106 may be a server for providingcommunication services, such an email, instant messaging, voicemail, orother communication services or may be a server for providing services,such as search engine services.

Network 108 may be a wired or wireless network and may include a numberof devices connected via wired or wireless means. Network 108 mayinclude only one network or a number of different networks, some ofwhich may be networks of different types. Network 108 may include, forexample, a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a packetswitching network, an ATM network, a Frame Relay network, an Ethernetnetwork, a fiber-optic network, a Public Switched Telephone Network(PSTN), a mobile telephone network, the Internet, or other types ofnetwork.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary processing system 200 which may be usedto implement processing devices 102, telephone 104 and/or server 106.Processing system 200 may include a bus 210, a processor 220, a memory230, a read only memory (ROM) 240, a storage device 250, an input device260, an output device 270, and a communication interface 280. Bus 210may permit communication among the components of processing system 200.

Processor 220 may include at least one conventional processor ormicroprocessor that interprets and executes instructions. Memory 230 maybe a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storagedevice that stores information and instructions for execution byprocessor 220. Memory 230 may also store temporary variables or otherintermediate information used during execution of instructions byprocessor 220. ROM 240 may include a conventional ROM device or anothertype of static storage device that stores static information andinstructions for processor 220. Storage device 250 may include any typeof media, such as, for example, magnetic or optical recording media andits corresponding drive.

Input device 260 may include one or more conventional mechanisms thatpermit a user to input information to system 200, such as a keyboard, amouse, a pen, a voice recognition device, a microphone, a headset, etc.Output device 270 may include one or more conventional mechanisms thatoutput information to the user, including a display, a printer, one ormore speakers, a headset, an earphone, or a medium, such as a memory, ora magnetic or optical disk and a corresponding disk drive. Communicationinterface 280 may include any transceiver-like mechanism that enablesprocessing device 200 to communicate via a network. For example,communication interface 280 may include a modem, or an Ethernetinterface for communicating via a local area network (LAN).Alternatively, communication interface 280 may include other mechanismsfor communicating with other devices and/or systems via wired, wirelessor optical connections.

Processing system 200 may perform such functions in response toprocessor 220 executing sequences of instructions contained in acomputer-readable medium, such as, for example, memory 230, a magneticdisk, or an optical disk. Such instructions may be read into memory 230from another computer-readable medium, such as storage device 250, orfrom a separate device via communication interface 280.

Processing system 200 may be, for example, a personal computer (PC), aPersonal Digital Assistant (PDA) or any other type of processing device.In alternative implementations, such as, for example, a distributedprocessing implementation, a group of processing devices 200 maycommunicate with one another via a network such that various processorsmay perform operations pertaining to different aspects of the particularimplementation.

Exemplary Embodiments

FIG. 3 illustrates a functional block diagram of server 106 (FIG. 1).Server 106 may include an inbox 302, a sent box 304, a content analyzer306, a language selector 308, a message retriever 310, a commercialmessage database 312, a translator 314, and a message presenter 316.

Inbox 302 and sent box 304 may be a user's exemplary communicationfolders, which may be stored on server 106. Inbox 302 and sent box 304may be exemplary communication folders for holding received and sentcommunications, respectively. Other communication folders may also bestored on server 106, some of which may be communication folders createdand named by a user.

Content Analyzer 306 may analyze words and distributions of words inuser communication folders, such as, for example, inbox 302 and sent box304, to determine one or more subjects that may be of interest to auser.

Language selector 308 may analyze words in user communication folders,such as inbox 302 an sent box 304, to determine a language of messagesin the user communication folders and to select a language in which theuser is comfortable conversing, such as, English, French, Spanish, oranother language.

Message retriever 310 may retrieve one or more commercial messages fromcommercial message database 312, based on one or more subjects ofinterest to the user, as may be determined by content analyzer 306.Commercial message database 312 may be a database of commercial messagesthat may be indexed by subject matter and a language of each commercialmessage.

Translator 314 may translate a language from a source language to atarget language. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/058,995, filed inthe U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Jan. 30, 2002, discloses amethod, which may be used with implementations of the invention, fortranslating a source language to a target language. U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/058,995 is incorporated by reference herein inits entirety.

Message presenter 316 may present one or more commercial messages to theuser. Message presenter may include a speech generator to generatespeech in a language in which the user is comfortable conversing. Otherimplementations of message presenter 316 may generate text in thelanguage in which the user is comfortable conversing.

Exemplary Processing

FIG. 4 illustrates exemplary processing which may be performed inimplementations consistent with the principles of the invention. Theprocessing may begin with language selector 306 of server 106 analyzingwords in a user's communication folders, such as, for example, inbox302, sent box 304, or other communication folders to determine a targetlanguage in which the user is comfortable conversing (act 402). Contentanalyzer 306 may then analyze a word content of the user'scommunications in the communication folders to determine one or moresubjects of interest of the user (act 404). Data with respect to theuser's one or more subjects of interest and the target language in whichthe user is comfortable conversing may be stored in storage on server106 for later use (act 406). This process may be repeated periodically,such as, monthly, weekly, or some other time period.

Further, in other implementations, language selection and communicationcontent analysis may be performed periodically, but statistics may becombined with statistics gathered during a previous X executions of acts402 through 406. In such an implementation, for example, each subsequentexecution may take into account previously calculated communicationstatistics with respect to language and content from the previous Xperiodic executions of acts 402 through 406. Of course, numerous othermethods may be performed in other implementations consistent with thesubject matter of this disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart which illustrates, in more detail, act 402 of theflowchart of FIG. 4. Language selector 308 of server 106 may determine alanguage of each message in communication folders, such as communicationfolder inbox 302, sent box 304, or other communication folders (act502). Any well-known method may be used to determine a language of eachcommunication in the message folders. Next, language selector 308 maydetermine which language is most used by the user (act 504). Languageselector 108 may make this determination by counting a number ofcommunications of each language in the user's communication folders andby calculating a percentage of total communications in the communicationfolders that are in each language. Language selector 308 may then selectthe language (for which translation capabilities exist) having a highestcalculated percentage of communications and may determine whether thecalculated percentage is greater than a threshold (act 506). If thecalculated percentage is greater than a threshold, such as, for example,50% or other value, then language selector 308 may set the targetlanguage to be the language having the highest calculated percentage(act 508).

If the calculated percentage of communications in the language is notgreater than the threshold, then a default language may be selected,such as, for example, English, French or another language (act 510).

The above illustrated process is exemplary. Any one of a number ofmethods may be used to select a target language for a user in otherimplementations. For example, in one implementation, if no one language(for which translation capabilities exist) has a calculated percentageof communications that is greater than the threshold, then languageselector 308 may set the target language to be any one of the languages(for which translation capabilities exist) used in communications incommunication folders having a higher or equal percentage ofcommunications than communications of other languages.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart which illustrates act 404 of the flowchart of FIG.4 in more detail. First, content analyzer 306 of server 106 may look forkeywords or phrases appearing in communications in the user'scommunication folders (act 602). If the keywords or phrases appearnumerous times in communications in the communication folders, contentanalyzer 306 may compare the keywords or phrases to a subject matterindex of commercial messages in commercial database 312 (act 604). Oneor more subject matters may be selected from the subject matter indexbased on matching keywords or phrases and may be saved (act 606).

FIGS. 7A and 7B are flowcharts that illustrate an exemplary process inwhich a user may be presented with one or more commercial messages in alanguage whose use is comfortable for the user. The process may beginwith a user at a processing device 102 or telephone 104 accessing asystem, such as, for example, an e-mail system or other system on server106 via a network, such as, for example, network 108 (act 702). Next, insome embodiments the user may be requested to provide authenticatinginformation, such as, for example, a user ID and password (act 704). Theuser may enter the authenticating information via processing device 102or telephone 104 (act 706). Server 106 may then determine whether theuser is properly authenticated (act 708). If the user is not properlyauthenticated, then server 106 may increment an access attempt counter(act 710) and may determine whether a maximum number of attempts to beauthenticated have been made by the user (act 712). If a maximum numberof attempts to be authenticated have been made, then server 106 mayforce the user off the system (act 714). Otherwise, server 106 may againrepeat acts 704 through 708 to provide the user with another opportunityto be properly authenticated.

Once the user is properly authenticated, message retriever 310 of server106 may access the previously saved data regarding one or more subjectsof interest of the user and a target language of the user (act 716).Message retriever 310 may then search commercial message database 312for commercial messages of interest to the user (act 718; FIG. 7B). Insome implementations, a subject matter index with respect to thecommercial messages in commercial message database 312 may be accessedto find commercial messages related to the one or more subject mattersof interest to the user. Assuming that commercial messages related tothe one or more subject matters of interest exist, message retriever 310may then retrieve one or more of the commercial messages related to theone or more subject matters of interest provided that either the one ormore commercial messages are already in the target language ortranslator 314 is capable of translating the one or more commercialmessages from a source language to the target language (act 720).

Next, translator 314 of server 106 may determine whether any of the oneor more commercial messages are in the target language (act 722). Onesof the commercial messages that are not in the target language may betranslated by translator 314 to the target language (act 724). Messagepresenter 316 may then prepare the one or more commercial messages forpresentation to the user (act 726). For some users of processing device102 and for users connected to the system through a device such astelephone 104, message presenter 316 may prepare the one or morecommercial messages for verbal presentation. That is, message presenter316 may perform speech generation in the target language to present theone or more commercial messages to the user. For other users, messagepresenter 316 may prepare a commercial textual message in the targetlanguage for presentation to the user. Such a textual message may bedisplayed on a portion of a display screen while the user reviews his orher messages.

Next, the user may be presented with received communications (act 728)and may send communications to (act 730).

CONCLUSION

The above-described embodiments are exemplary and are not limiting withrespect to the scope of the invention. Embodiments within the scope ofthe present invention may also include computer-readable media forcarrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structuresstored thereon. Such computer-readable media can be any available mediathat can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media cancomprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means inthe form of computer-executable instructions or data structures. Wheninformation is transferred or provided over a network or anothercommunications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or combinationthereof to a computer, the computer properly views the connection as acomputer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed acomputer-readable medium. Combinations of the above should also beincluded within the scope of the computer-readable media.

Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions anddata which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function orgroup of functions. Computer-executable instructions also includeprogram modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or networkenvironments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,objects, components, and data structures, etc. that perform particulartasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executableinstructions, associated data structures, and program modules representexamples of the program code means for executing steps of the methodsdisclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executableinstructions or associated data structures represents examples ofcorresponding acts for implementing the functions described in suchsteps.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of theinvention may be practiced in network computing environments with manytypes of computer system configurations, including personal computers,hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by localand remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwiredlinks, wireless links, or by a combination thereof through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

Although the above description may contain specific details, they shouldnot be construed as limiting the claims in any way. Other configurationsof the described embodiments of the invention are part of the scope ofthis invention. Further, in other implementations, hardwired logic maybe used instead of processors, or one or more application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs) may be used in implementations consistentwith the principles of the invention. In addition, implementationsconsistent with the principles of the invention may have more or feweracts than as described, or may implement acts in a different order thanas shown. Accordingly, the appended claims and their legal equivalentsshould only define the invention, rather than any specific examplesgiven.

1. A method for presenting a commercial message to a user, the methodcomprising: determining a target language in which the user iscomfortable communicating based on at least one communication receivedby the user or at least one communication provided by the user; andpresenting the commercial message in the target language to the user. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the commercial message in the targetlanguage is previously stored and the method further comprises:retrieving the previously stored commercial message in the targetlanguage for presentation to the user.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe commercial message is in a source language that is different fromthe target language, the method further comprising: translating thecommercial message in the source language to the target language beforethe act of presenting the commercial message in the target language tothe user.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: analyzing wordsin the at least one communication provided by the user or the at leastone communication received by the user to determine a subject matter ofinterest to the user; and selecting the commercial message based on thedetermined subject matter of interest.
 5. The method of claim 4, whereinthe presenting the commercial message in the target language to the userfurther comprises: generating speech corresponding to the commercialmessage in the target language, and sending the generated speech to theuser via a telephone.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least onecommunication received by the user or the at least one communicationprovided by the user includes an email communication.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the act of determining a target language in which theuser is comfortable communicating based on at least one communicationreceived by the user or at least one communication provided by the userfurther comprises: determining the target language based on exceeding athreshold level of a percentage of communications sent or provided bythe user in a particular language.
 8. A machine-readable medium havingstored thereon instructions for at least one processor, themachine-readable medium comprising: instructions for determining atarget language in which the user is comfortable communicating based onat least one communication received by the user or at least onecommunication provided by the user via a communication system; andinstructions for presenting a commercial message in the target languageto the user.
 9. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein thecommercial message in the target language is previously stored and themachine-readable medium further comprise: instructions for retrievingthe previously stored commercial message in the target language forpresentation to the user.
 10. The machine-readable medium of claim 8,wherein the commercial message is in a source language that is differentfrom the target language, the machine-readable medium furthercomprising: instructions for translating the commercial message in thesource language to the target language before presenting the commercialmessage in the target language to the user.
 11. The machine-readablemedium of claim 8, further comprising: instructions for analyzing wordsin the at least one communication provided by the user or the at leastone communication received by the user to determine a subject matter ofinterest to the user; and instructions for selecting the commercialmessage based on the determined subject matter of interest.
 12. Themachine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions forpresenting the commercial message in the target language to the userfurther comprise: instructions for generating speech corresponding tothe commercial message in the target language, and sending the generatedspeech to the user via a network.
 13. The machine-readable medium ofclaim 8, wherein the communication system includes an email system. 14.The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions fordetermining a target language in which the user is comfortablecommunicating based on at least one communication received by the useror at least one communication provided by the user further comprise:instructions for determining the target language based on exceeding athreshold level of a percentage of communications provided or receivedby the user in a particular language.
 15. A communication systemcomprising: a language selector to determine a target language in whichthe user is comfortable communicating based on at least onecommunication received by the user or at last one communication providedby the user; and a message presenter to present a commercial message inthe target language to the user.
 16. The communication system of claim15, further comprising: a message retriever to retrieve a previouslystored commercial message in the target language for presentation to theuser.
 17. The communication system of claim 15, wherein the commercialmessage is in a source language that is different from the targetlanguage, the system further comprising: a translator to translate thecommercial message in the source language to the target language beforethe commercial message is presented to the user.
 18. The communicationsystem of claim 15, further comprising: a content analyzer to analyzeone or more words of the at least one communication received by the useror the at least one communication provided by the user to determine asubject matter of interest to the user; and a message retriever toselect the commercial message based on the determined subject matter ofinterest.
 19. The communication system of claim 15, wherein the messagepresenter is arranged to present the commercial message to the user asgenerated speech in the target language.
 20. The communication system ofclaim 15, wherein the language selector is further configured todetermine the target language based on exceeding a threshold level of apercentage of communications provided or received by the user in aparticular language.